Inter close to signing Portsmouth's Muntari

24/07/2008 17:35:25

Internazionale will today complete the signing of the Portsmouth midfielder Sulley Muntari in a deal worth over £11m, according to reports in Italy. Gazzetta dello Sport claimed this morning that Inter had agreed to pay Portsmouth an initial £10.98m (€14m) for Muntari, a Ghana international, though this fee could rise depending on performance related criteria.

Muntari, who is believed to have agreed a five-year deal with Inter, is expected to arrive in Milan either this afternoon or tomorrow to undergo a medical. His signing suggests that Inter have abandoned hope of capturing Chelsea's Frank Lampard, previously the manager Jose Mourinho's No1 target, after having a bid for the England midfielder rejected earlier this month.

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp had been very reluctant to sell Muntari, who was ever-present after arriving from Udinese last May. "[Muntari is] going nowhere, nowhere at all," insisted Redknapp last week, but the club's board appear to have decided that the fee offered by Inter represents a sufficiently high mark-up on the £7m they paid a year ago.

Mourinho is also believed to be close to securing a deal for Porto winger Ricardo Quaresma, but was nevertheless heckled and jeered by fans at Inter's training camp in Riscone di Brunico yesterday after he locked them out of a training session because he feared some of them were spies sent by rival clubs.

"I have so much respect for the fans," he told reporters afterwards. "But I know that among the many fans who came here to show their appreciation to the players, there are also many coaches and observers from other clubs who we may play against during the course of the season. We needed to practice some tactical moves from set pieces, since tomorrow we have our first friendly [against Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal], so I decided to have the training behind closed doors. This is the only motivation I had and Inter's fans need to know it."

Nevertheless, Mourinho, who has been praised by a number of Inter's players since taking over at the club last month, may have to do a little better if he is to win over the nearly-3,000 fans who were turned away. "We understand the manager," one supporter told Gazzetta sarcastically as he left. "After all, Al Hilal are very dangerous opponents …"